Le Mardi est Jour de Gâteau

Le Salon d'Honoré
(Photo taken from TripAdvisor)

This week, we had to move Cake Wednesday to Tuesday, ergo; Cake Tuesday.

For this week's cake day, we did some research and TripAdvisor suggested that we try the café, 'Le Salon d'Honoré' on Grand Rue in Cherbourg town centre.

Well done TripAdvisor, this is one fabulous little tea room! Not only is it beautiful but they have a wonderful array of teas and cakes.

Just part of the extensive tea menu
at 'Le Salon d'Honoré'

The café is decorated in a lovely washed out peppermint green/duck egg blue kind of colour with some cream floral wall paper sections, wooden floors and pale pink and cream cushions and decorations. The walls have lovely frames, mirrors and china plate hangings. It's just so pretty!

Menu Cover

Allison ordered the 'Opus Viennois' perfumed green tea (an aromatic mix of Cinnamon, Orange, Vanilla and Rose). It smelt like 'Christmas Potpourri', as Allison described it!

I had the tea infusion 'Bisou de Fruits' (kiss of fruit) which had a delicious blend of Apple, Papaya, Pineapple and Caramel. It smelt and tasted amazing!

Cupcakes!
Chocolate with chocolate icing
and chocolate cream filling (left) and
Caramel with Caramel filling and
Vanilla cream icing and caramel sauce on top! (right)

The teas are all served on a beautiful mismatch of different china tea sets (but the cup and saucers match!). It is really sweet.

We also ordered cupcakes - one chocolate and one caramel to share. These not only had the icing on top, but were filled with creamy sauce of their corresponding flavour! Very tasty!

It seems to be run by a lovely older woman who brings everything over to your table on pretty trays.

The weather was absolutely horrible today but this little place was able to make me very happy!

I think this is in my top two favourite places in Cherbourg, along with the Parc Emmanuel Liais with their gardens and greenhouses.

Allison's 'Opus Viennois' (right)
and my 'Bisou de Fruits' (left)
Also, our Caramel and Chocolate cupcakes!

Cherbourg Ferme le Lundi

Harbourside view towards Cherbourg

This afternoon I had to take Aurianne for a walk to make sure that she had a long nap. As she needed to sleep for about 2 hours, I thought that it would be worth actually doing something/going somewhere so decided to walk to Cité de la Mer as I've yet to visit the biggest (only) attraction in Cherbourg.

We set off at 1:30pm, and Aurianne was asleep before I'd even done the buggy straps up! It's about a 40 minute walk to Cité de la Mer and so as I needed to be back for 4:45pm, I'd get just over 1.5hours to explore the exhibitions (which I anticipated would be plenty of time, but if not I could always go again).

Irish Ferries, Ferry is called 'Oscar Wilde'

I arrived at Cité de la Mer and thought 'hmm, not many cars in the car park, it must be a quiet day today'. But when I got to the doors I realised it was shut. It doesn't even shut every Monday, just random Mondays between November and May. The annual schedule makes no sense.

Cité de la Me

I was pretty annoyed - we'd walked much further than I would have liked to, for absolutely no reason!

As I didn't want to completely waste the trip, I wandered around on that side of the harbour for a while. I came across a memorial for fishermen lost at sea which was quite interesting.

After about 20 minutes of wandering, I started to head back in the direction of home thinking I could sit in a café and eat cake in town. However, when I got into town, I realised that it was largely desserted. This is because it was Monday.

Absurd opening times of Cité de la Mer

People in Cherbourg (and across France for that matter) refuse to work more than 35 hours a week, and insist on having two days off.

As the town centre is retail area, many people actually want to go shopping on Saturdays when they're home from their office jobs etc. Therefore, most shops and cafés will close on Monday to make up for this 'lost day off'.

It is very annoying.

View out to sea

Memorial for Fishermen lost at Sea

This meant that I couldn't sit in a café and get cake because there weren't many open! Instead, I went to the Petit Jean street bakery and bought myself a Cherbourgeois and a Pepité au Chocolat (which Marc had yesterday - there's also the option of 'Pepititée' or something, which is the same thing but with a chocolate topping too).

By this point it was about 3:15, but Aurianne was still asleep (she clearly needed it) so I went home via Parc Liais and sat on a bench eating my chocolatey goodness.

I got back home at around 3:45pm and then had to sit in the foyer waiting for Aurianne to wake up, which she finally did at about 4:05pm! A very long nap for Aurianne, and very tired legs for me!

Harbourside view

Cherbourgeois
(wasn't as good as last time)

Pepité au Chocolat
(sweet bread with chocolate chips, and folded into
three with Creme Patisserie in the middle. Yum.)

Mercredi = Gâteau

Mini Cakes from Maison Toulorge bakery

Don't forget, Wednesday means Cake!

Not only did I have cake to look forward to in the afternoon, but Fran also went to Maison Toulorge and bought these little cakes as a treat for lunch. The were like little sponge cakes with chocolate drops and chocolate icing on top. I'm a bit annoyed as with the kids and trying to sort out dinner and the house and getting ready to go out, I didn't actually have one, which meant that they were all gone by the time I had got home.

This week, we didn't have somewhere in mind for cake so decided to just wander until we found somewhere.

Cake Wednesdays at Café Pompon
Flan (left), Foret Noir (right),
and Chocolate Chaud for me

This would have worked much better if we knew roughly where a nice little Café was, but we didn't so we wandered around for about half an hour before settling on Café Pompon (the same one we went to a couple of weeks ago).

We decided to do the same as always, and get two desserts to share. This time we went for 'Flan' and 'Foret Noir' (Black forest cake). The Flan was really good. The black forest cake was also very nice, but very rich and strong so I struggled to finish it!

I still think Café Pompon is very nice, but we're hoping to find somewhere new for next week!

If you've been to Cherbourg and know of any good places for afternoon cake eating, do let me know!

L'Anniversaire de Theo

Gâteau d'Anniversaire
with a sparkler candle!

Le Pantagruel - Grill Restaurant

This week it was Theo's (one of the language assistants) birthday.

Theo invited me and the language assistants in the area out to dinner to celebrate. There were 8 of us altogether (7 girls and Theo), including a Chilean, two Americans (one of whom was Allison), a German, a Jamaican, a Costa-Rican and an Irish girl. Oh, and English me.

Pommeau Aperitif
(Apple juice
mixed with Calvados)

It was very multicultural gathering. It's a shame this didn't happen before my assessment for my 'Languages and Cultures' module - "discuss a recent Intercultural Encounter".

We all went to Le Pantegruel Restaurant - a grill restaurant near the centre of Cherbourg on Rue Tour Caree. It was a really nice little place with very friendly owners who all tried to speak English to the English speakers among us.

French Menu (left)
vs. English Menu (right)

Butcher's Choice Steak with Jacket Potato

They had an English Menu, but it just showed a very small selection of the main courses, rather than the whole menu in English so we needed the French menu anyway.

I had 'Onglet' - the butchers choice steak with jacket potato (I was having a potato craving as Fran is actually allergic to potato so we very rarely have it). It was really nice steak - possibly one of the best steaks I've ever had!

Giant bowl of chips!

Most people ordered chips and rather than coming on the individual's plates, they brought a huge bowl of them instead.

In between dinner and dessert, we all tried to inconspicuously sign a birthday card for Theo. It was working quite well behind the dessert menu, but then they took it away so we had to disappear surreptitiously to the bathroom!

The Dessert Menu - lots of choice!

L'Assiette du Pantagruel (Selection of 5 French desserts)

For dessert, I had planned on sharing the 'L'assiette du Pantagruel' (selection plate) with someone, but then ended up having it to myself. Oops. It had a selection of five desserts. When I asked what they were they said 'Ahh, surprise!' so I just risked it and ordered it anyway.



It was very nice. It came with a slice of brownie, apple tart (tarte tatin), pistachio ice cream in raspberry coulis, a creamy mouse and Iles Flottante ('floating island' - little meringues floating in creme anglais). It was really tasty!

Allison had Crème brûlée
I tried some, it was tasty!

The owners were very nice and had a chat with us (in a mix of English and French) about what schools the language assistants were at and what we all want to do 'when we grow up'/after studying etc.

French Border Collie puppy

We had to leave at 9:45pm as one of the other language assistants - Sara, the Irish girl - had to catch a bus as they don't live or work in the centre of Cherbourg like most of the others do.

While we were stood waiting, a man came up to us and asked if we were English (he'd heard us talking) and then showed us his gorgeous border collie puppy! Can't remember what its name was - something French...

The Napoleon Statue at Night

Afore mentioned frenchman came up to us again 10 mins later (we were still waiting for a non-existant bus to turn up for Sara) and asked "J'ai partager une l'eglise avec vous'. Now, my french isn't excellent but I understand 'I have to share a church with you'. I looked at him blankly thinking I'd misheard, when he said 'oh, yes sorry, I forgot. English'. He then preceded to tell us about some Christian retreat him and his wife run in the summer for 18-25 yr olds. Theo interjected with 'Oh, that sounds wonderful but we actually have to leave in April so we won't be here. I'm so sorry.' And then he left. Very odd.

Sara's bus never actually did turn up but she managed to call her supervisor at the school who came to get her instead.

Le Mercredi est Jour de Gâteau

The Apple Garden Café on Rue Gambetta

So this week, Allison and I decided to check out a new café she'd walked past with her host family. It was called 'Apple Garden Café'on Rue Gambetta. We went on Wednesday afternoon (fast becoming cake day), while Aurianne was asleep in the pram.

It was a lovely little café. Very clean and bright, with artwork in English and a bookshelf with lots of English books on it.

At first, we were a bit confused as to whether we ordered from the table or the counter (most cafés seem to be from the table), but no one came over and there was no menu... Also, all the cakes were in one of those glass display cases so we had to go up and have a look. We just ordered while we were over there.

The Apple Garden Café
(I believe that's the owner stood to
the right of the counter - Google tells me
his name is Derek Smith)

They didn't have quite the selection that some of the patisseries and cafés have, but it was more similar to a British café with a small selection (although the selection was more desserts than your custom shortbread and cakes that one might find in a café in the UK).

We went for 'Cheesecake Chocolat Blanc' and 'Panna Cotta Chocolat Noir'. They also had New York Cheesecake, which Allison (an American, albeit West Coast) had never heard of. Perhaps that's something we've created and given an American name? Like French toast - no one in France knows what French toast is supposed to be! Allison had also never heard of Panna Cotta, so I tried to explain that it was like a set custard cream dessert, probably from Italy (I got the origin right, but it's cream, egg white and honey according to Wikipedia!)

It was a good choice, (Allison was sad to realise they also had cookies but that we couldn't see them).

Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta (left)
and White Chocolate Cheesecake (right)

Aurianne isn't very well at the moment, and she woke up coughing after about 10 mins of sleep - not ideal, especially as she hadn't had a nap that morning. I then spent an hour trying to get her back to sleep (during which time she was fed cheesecake), and then she finally went back sleep again.

The (we think) owner came over to ask us how everything was - in English!! Allison didn't notice he was speaking English at first, but he was very nice. He had a (I think) French Canadian accent, so that would probably explain the English decor, and name of the Café. It was a very nice place though - it even has an outdoor patio (which lots of school kids went out to) which would be quite nice in the Summer!

Café Pompon

Very nice Hot Chocolate
(This was supposed to be 'Grand'...)

On Wednesday I met up with my new American friend, Allison.

We decided to meet up for coffee and cake at a Café in Cherbourg while Aurianne had her afternoon nap in the pushchair.

I found this (rather brightly coloured) Café called 'Café Pompon', just opposite the Carrefour Cité. It was lime green and lilac - I thought that would make it easier to spot!

I had a 'Grand Maison Chocolat' (Hot chocolate) which came with some little egg custard petit four thing. It was very nice but I have yet to find out what it actually was!

When Allison arrived, we ordered a 'Tarte au Citron' (Lemon Tart) and a 'Croquant au Chocolat'.

We weren't sure what a 'Croquant au Chocolat' was when we ordered it (they just had cakes and tarts in one of those glass cakes and thought it looked good). It turned out it was a kind of chocolate praline mousse cake with crunchy wafer bits in. Very tasty!

I thought I'd taken a picture of these too, but looks like I didn't. Must have been too distracted by eating it... oops! Maybe I'll go back again soon!